1. Field
The present disclosure pertains to the field of electronic components. More particularly, the present disclosure pertains to a temperature control interface for an electronic component such as a processor.
2. Description of Related Art
Controlling the temperature of electronic components is an ongoing struggle as components continue to shrink, yet often consume more power. Microprocessors now employ sophisticated techniques to allow power conservation and to throttle themselves when temperatures reach certain thermal metrics.
For example, one prior art processor includes a stop clock pin that allows the system to stop the processor clock for various reasons. One known use of this pin is to provide a periodic waveform on the stop clock pin, causing the processor to periodically stop and re-start processor (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,001). Such clock throttling effectively reduces the processor operating rate, thereby typically reducing power consumption and temperature.
Additionally, the prior art processor may itself have thermal sensors and may perform its own internally-initiated throttling. When internally-initiated throttling for thermal reasons is employed, an external signal may be asserted to alert the system (see, e.g., PROCHOT# output signal of the Pentium® 4 Processor).
These mechanisms, however, may not provide adequate control and/or synchronization capabilities for some applications.